Being Paramuno: Peasant World-Making Practices in the Paramos [High Moorlands] of the Colombian Andes

Abstract

In this paper we explore what campesino [peasant] livelihoods in the rural Andean mountains of Colombia offer to understandings of more-than-human co-existence and care. For, while new conservation paradigms promise to transform economic and social horizons, being “paramuno” [resident of the “paramo,” or high moorlands] in the small community of Monquentiva is already characterized by becoming-with-other-beings-and-practices; a disposition toward incorporation of elements that are at-hand, and an ethics of care toward other beings in the landscape. We draw on ethnographic data to present this case study, emphasizing the forms of social organization and persistence that have enabled the emergence of economically and ecologically sustainable livelihoods. We explore these processes in terms of what we call world-making practices, showing how relationships with Indigeneity and collectivity are being renegotiated, and arguing for modes of conservation that engage with existing forms of peasant innovation.

Keywords:

• Andes
• campesinos
• Colombia
• Indigeneity
• ontologies

Notes

Notes

1 It is important to note that we are aware of the processes of racialization through which humans are ascribed to certain natures, often against their wishes (Sundberg 2004). However, we want to examine the becoming of the interactions that form the landscape to show their mutual constitutions, rather than anchoring them to any enduring cultural topographies. In this way, we aim to provide an understanding of nature-cultural relations beyond simple binaries and associations.

2 mixed Indigenous and European background.

3 Importantly, Indigenous and campesino identities would not be considered subsequent (in a linear idea of development) or opposed to one another in these schemes; rather the two categories are connected and co-constituted.

4 For example, in 2010, CAR, CorpoGuavio (Autonomous Corporation of the Guavio Region), the Guavio Dam, and the Central Region Chamber of Commerce began implementing an environmental project revolving around conserving water and the Muisca tradition. The community was never informed regarding the purpose of this project. Today the metal columns that were installed at different points of the páramo and the road—which initially carried slogans about the importance of taking care of water and fragments of Muisca myths—are rusting in the humidity and do not serve any purpose for locals or visitors.

5 the Early Muisca (c. 1000 B.C. – 1200 B.C.) and the Late Muisca (c. 1200 B.C. – 1538 B.C.), whose cosmology was heavily shaped around water systems.

6 According to an eighteenth-century soil found in the General Archive of the Nation of Colombia, what we know today as the Bog of Martos was a lake that has taken this name at least since 1797. In the context of Spanish colonialism, the drainage and routing of these lakes of the Muisca began, with the aim of extracting the gold and other precious metals deposited there in the ritual worship.

7 Don Eduardo Romero, one of the founders of the settlement, recalls that there were several efforts made to drain the pantano. The first was made by the foreign entrepreneur Martos, but afterwards five important landlords from Bogotá successively tried to drain it for pasture. A few years later the land became temporarily dry, so the bog was converted into a green carpet ideal for keeping heifers. In the 1980s the CAR bought surrounding lands, including the pantano. However, this period was marked by a terrible forest fire that affected the páramo, as well as the beginning of the FARC guerrillas’ occupation. According to the campesinos these negative events marked the degradation of nature.

8 A photographic gallery of the field site, including images of the páramo; the community itself; dairy production and a map of Monquentiva, can be found at [anonymised web address].

Additional information

Funding

Natural Environment Research Council;